Jonathan Administration Sabotages UNN Conference In Honor of Achebe

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has sabotaged an international conference and lecture series designed to honor Professor Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s leading novelists and a major voice for the Nigerian people in their quest for a just, democratic order.

Sources in Nsukka and Abuja told SaharaReporters that the University of Nigeria International Conference/Chinua Achebe Annual Lectures had to be postponed to April after the Jonathan administration not only suddenly reneged on its pledge of financial support but also pulled away from participating.
The conference organizers had earlier secured the commitment of the administration that President Jonathan or his representative would be available to kick off the conference which was scheduled for January 30 to February 3, 2012. Until the government’s decision to pull out, a presidential aide, Akachukwu Nwankpo, had been acting as Jonathan’s liaison to the organizers.

“The University of Nigeria Nsukka is too cash-strapped to fund a conference of the scope that we planned,” an official of the university where Professor Achebe used to teach disclosed. He added: “The moment the president’s liaison told us that they would not provide the funds they had promised, we had no other option than to postpone.”
In addition to scholars from Nigeria and other parts of the world, the French ambassador to Nigeria was also scheduled to speak at the now aborted conference.

Achebe, the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, reportedly incurred the wrath of the presidency when he released a three-sentence letter he sent to Mr. Jonathan rejecting the award of a national honor. More recently, Professor Achebe, who is putting finishing touches to a major non-fiction book, denounced the Nigerian government’s unpopular decision to sharply increase the price of fuel.


SaharaReporters learnt that Mr. Nwankpo recently made it clear to officials of UNN that the Jonathan administration was no longer keen on providing financial support for the conference or participating.
Reached by phone, one of the would-be participants said he was “thoroughly distressed” by the Presidency’s action. “Look, as an academic before he went into politics, President Jonathan should understand that critics like our revered Professor Achebe are his best friends. They criticize him because they want him to succeed. His real enemies are those advising him to alienate himself from the generality of Nigerians.”

He added: “The government’s decision to pull out is not going to affect Achebe who already is a giant in the literary and intellectual world. Instead, it is our premier indigenous university – which is a shadow of its former self due to severe funding shortages – that is being punished.”
An EU diplomatic source told SaharaReporters that Achebe “is one of Nigeria’s greatest symbols whose writing has earned acclaim and followership globally.”

A source close to Professor Achebe told SaharaReporters that the novelist had not planned to be physically present at the Nsukka but was going to send a message. (SaharaReporters)